Orange Pop: Barrett Johnson readies next album

Growing up as one of six children in his Irvine home, Barrett Johnson remembers his house always being filled with music. With musicians on both sides of the family -- even a professional banjo-playing grandpa -- Johnson was inspired early on to pick up an instrument himself. So he'd often sneak into his brother's room while he was out, grab his guitar from under the bed and attempt to play it.

Johnson's older brother also exposed him to numerous songwriters. “He gave me tapes of Bob Dylan and Paul Simon,” he recalls. “I was hooked after that. I just remember wearing those tapes out and completely turning my life upside down.”

He hasn't put the guitar down since. Johnson has been gigging around Southern California for a decade now, and in 2008 released his first album, In Case I Went Missing, featuring tracks that have appeared on Private Practice and MTV's The Real World.

Along with fellow local artists Billy Kernkamp, Melanoid and Justin Grennan and the Project, Johnson will perform Friday night at South Coast Plaza Village, in a $5-ticket benefit for the local charity Music for a Cure.

One thing all of these artists have in common is that they've recorded with producer Dallas Kruse, who also happens to sit in with numerous Orange County bands. Kruse has already worked on albums with Grennan, Johnson, Kernkamp and Melanoid, as well as Selena Garcia and ska-pop outfit Suburban Legends, among others.

“He's a huge talent and he's going to be playing with all four bands Friday night,” Johnson mentioned. “He's a real humble guy -- he never talks about himself, but he's starting to become known for these albums that he's recording.”

Johnson's band -- including Kruse on keys and accordion, Mikey Hachey on bass, John Hanson of Melanoid on guitar, Jorgren Ingmar on drums and Grennan providing backing vocals -- consists of many of the same members from the other bands performing Friday at the South Coast charity show.

“We all gig around, but then we all have our core groups,” he explains. “The change between acts sometimes on stage is that someone hands someone else a guitar and they step behind the mic.”

Johnson reports that he and Kruse are close to wrapping work on his sophomore album, due this fall and tentatively titled New Jerusalem, one of the new disc's songs.

“I refrain from talking about politics or religion with anyone,” he says, “but I wanted to name (the album) something about hope or second chances, so I decided to name it something that I have hope in. There's a lot more to it, but that would be a long conversation.”

For the past two months, Johnson and Kruse, who have known each other since high school at Calvary Chapel in Santa Ana, have been recording at Zion Studios. However, the experience this time around was far less grueling than it was making In Case I Went Missing: Johnson recorded that one in a studio in Hollywood in his downtime, and it took nearly four years to complete.

“With this one, it was different. I feel like this is my first album. It takes a lot to get excited when you've been doing music for so long, but I'm actually really, really excited about this.”

Having gained success licensing songs from the last album for television, Johnson hopes the new one will catch on as well. He's also working on a side project, called Ultimate Bear Hug, with Doll Knight of local group Canvas; the duo is looking to record an EP to also pitch for commercial use.

Music, for Johnson, has developed from something he just enjoyed doing at 15 to something that now demands considerable effort. The turning point seems to have come in his late teens and early 20s, when he wrote enough material to start booking gigs, his first being at Alta Coffee in Newport Beach.

“I still play there once a year,” he says. “It's from there that things took off. Once I got enough people to fill the coffee shop, I went to the next step and booked at the Gypsy Lounge and even more people came.

“It's been really cool. I'm grateful to have been surrounded by friends that are such talented songwriters, so when we have a show there are a bunch of us in one spot. It's that way now, which is why I like this scene.”

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